Step Right And Follow Your Head
by Miss Meggie
Summary: When Jemma chose SHIELD that day, Grant never could of guessed it would result in going into the Kree Stone together. All he's got is a shot in the dark made with bullets of spared hope. ** An alternate choice in WHERE DO YOU FIT VERSE**
1. Chapter 1

**Songs Used: I And Love And You By The Avett Brothers**

* * *

When she doesn't return from her walk he doesn't take it personally. He gets it; He's lied too long and fucked up too often. He'll hang on to the love he saw in her eyes, the struggle of wanting to stay. He'll keep that, they were real. She loved him it would have to be enough.

He sits in the exact spot she left him until Kara returns with concern written all over her face. It might make him awful, more awful than he already is but if the loneness gets the better of him at least he can use Kara as a fix. At some point he convinces himself that he loves Kara and he seeks vengeance for the wrongs done to her.

-/-/-/

Any delusions he has of loving Kara flit away like a butterfly on the wind the second he lays eyes on Jemma at the playground. She's hid the fact that she's the only reason he's alive very well. The hate in her eyes is almost convincing baby's gotten good at loathing while he was away.

He turns the camera monitoring her quarters away and slips in. "I am not in the pro Jemma going on this mission column but that tactical gear is doing things to my resolve on the issue." He says watching her buckle the thigh holster.

She huffs and rolls her eyes. The irritated way she bites out "Grant…" has that little part of his brain screaming "touch, touch, touch," itching for action.

"Bloody holsters and snaps and shit." She mutters fumbling with a final latch. It's the tiny expletive that does him in. The part of his mind whispering "Mine, Mine, Mine," moves him into action.

He crosses to her in three strides and has her backed conveniently to her bed. How nice. He's not sure who kisses who first but they're kissing (very, very enthusiastically) nonetheless.

"We shouldn't…" she murmurs into his mouth

"That's not no." He points out while cupping her face in his hands.

"We don't have time and…"

"They can't leave without us babe. We're integral to Coulson's brainchild." He says stopping to nip her chin. "Besides for the next however long neither of us have to lie about what we want."

"Aren't you mad at me?" She asks undoing his TAC vest.

"For not wanting to run for the next decade? No, hurt a little but I'll live."

"Keep the leather jacket lose the ugly maroon jumper." She advises out of nowhere. "It makes you look like Garrett." Speaking of his earlier attire.

"Yes dear." He says laughing He can't help it. "Man I love you Jem."

-/-/-

Afterward they lay side by side. "Shit…I still love you Bollocks fucking bloody hell. Fuck!"

He shoves up on to his elbow to watch her. "There are worse things to do ya know."

"I saved your life all those months ago because I loved you. I'd hoped it'd gone away because whatever inevitable unfathomable horrid thing you do next is on me, because I didn't let you die and I'll have to make things right. So could you just I don't know be good…for now."

"Give it my best shot baby." He says leaning in to kiss her.

-/-/-

They dress hurriedly and exited Jemma's quarters and ran smack into Agent Weaver coming to retrieve Jemma. A deep blush floods Jemma's entire body and fuck if it wasn't the cutest thing Grant has seen in forever.

Jemma starts to stutter out an excuse. "I was just-"

"We were having sex. We're married; it's legal in all the states and most foreign countries. Don't make her feel shamed for what comes natural to her. A pleasure as always Weaver." He turned to Jemma who stood mouth gaping. He tucked her chin up to close her mouth before dropping a quick kiss on her lips. "See you on the jet Baby; feel free to sit by me if flying in small things still wigs you out alright?"

"Okay." She mumbles distractedly.

"Good." And he walked away.

-/-/-/-

The mission goes well enough and he leaves Kara implanted where she needs to be to carry forward their plans. He doesn't say goodbye to Jemma, he can't force the words past his lips. Their love, it's a weapon waiting to be used against which ever one of them pisses off Coulson first. He can't chance feeding the ammo into the belly of the beast.

-/-

He falls back into the pseudo relationship with Kara because he needs the advantage over her. He gives her the revenge she wants mostly because she deserves it but more than that it will pacify her.

Morse however is not caving. She's just getting started.

She rambles on about how Grant is using shared trauma to control Kara. Which he is, but he feels no need to admit.

"You're a toy to him. Something to occupy his mind while what he really wants is so far out of reach he can't even dream of her face anymore. He loves her Kara and do you wanna know why? Because she was too fucking smart too fall for his excuses. Everyone has trauma, everyone but not everyone uses it as justification for being an evil asshole. I will never be sorry I gave up the safe house and neither will he because she was undercover in Hydra when I gave it away. I saved Jemma and he's ready to fall at my feet for that alone. You will always be second when flung up against all that brilliance and purity. Because just touching the woman's hand has him feeling clean."

"I've never lied to Kara about having loved my wife." He says hold up his hands in pretend supplication before crushing the urge to shrug as careless as he feels.

"Really? You tell her you two screwed like rabbits in the artic? The very second you could get your hands on her? Did you think she wouldn't tell me Grant?" She smirks and Grant finds himself itching to slap her, he fights it

Bobbi laughed loudly. "He can't tell you it didn't matter to him because he worships her, always has. One of his few redeeming qualities I suppose." She leans as far back in the chair as her trapped hands will allow.

He leans a hip on the table. "You know the one thing we have in common Morse? We love people who'd go running into the blazes of hell for us. We both know Hunter's coming after you. I'm going to use his love for you to kill him." And he strolls out.

He rigs up a really killer (pun intended) door bomb and sends Kara to watch for Bobbi's rescuers.

-/-

Jemma told him the next bad thing he did was on her hands and she meant it. She'd make it right so she's here to save Bobbi maybe trade herself in return she hasn't got that far in her planning.

When they split apart to search for Bobbi she never sees Kara until it's too late and she's pumped a round into her shoulder. She faints from the pain.

She comes to on a highly suspect bathroom floor she pulls herself up off the floor using the sink for leverage. In the mirror May's face stares back at her. Jemma isn't quite sure what she's seeing.

Her first instinct is fear. She goes for her help.

-/-/-

He sees May coming around the corner. He shoots without thought.

When the very British sounding, "Love." Falls from May's lips his heart stops knowing immediately Kara had put the spare Nano mask (Created by Bakishi) on Jemma in jealousy.

"No! No, no, no, no, no please no!" the no's become a screaming litany as he sobs so hard it's like his soul whatever is left of its blackened scraps is being torn out of him. He realizes the keening, injured animal sounds are coming from him. As she reaches up to touch his face he pulls it together a little. The mask has disengaged as her brain function is slowing its back to Jemma's gorgeous face. "Damn it! You told me to be good…I'm sorry."

"Lake House…" she whispers.

"That's right…" he chokes back a sob. "We're there dancing across the floors as we paint the walls in the morning. That's where we are. Just go there…" He nods clutching her to him.

He leans down to whisper the words to their song into ear. The song they'd danced to that morning. "Load the car and write the note. Grab your bag and grab your coat, tell the ones that need to know. We are headed north. One foot in and one back, but it don't pay to live like that. I cut the ties and I jump the tracks, for never to return…" He kisses the stuttering pulse point on her neck.

He can feel her struggling for breath. "It's okay baby…"He can't see her for the tears in his eyes. "It's almost over baby…I love you…its okay." He kisses her and her last breath falls on his lips.

He has no idea how long he sits there in the floor of the hallway cradling her body in his arms but he doesn't move. He just holds her and cries. He cries from the place he keeps hidden. The place that had loved Thomas, the place he'd let Garrett into only to be twisted up. He cries from the tiny corner of his soul that was reserved solely for Jemma and nothing else.

He killed the only thing he loved, again.

There's a scream crawling up the back of his throat begging to be let out. He pushes it down. He brushes the hair out of her face and wipes the blood off her mouth. Someone touches him.

He turns wild eyed and angry on May. The scream hanging out in his throat turns into a deep snarl. "She's my wife!"

May literally jumps back before approaching more carefully. "We've got to go now or we'll lose Morse too." She says warily as though she's dealing with a trapped animal protecting itself.

He stares back down at Jemma ignoring May. "You're going to have to shoot me to get her away from me."

"You're more valuable to SHIELD alive. Get on your feet Ward." She orders.

-/-/-

He's not quite tracking how much time has passed or where they are until May escorts him into Jemma's lab in the playground. He forces down a new wave of tears as he places her on the exam table.

"Sit." May orders he's too numb to do anything but comply. She forces him into the seat at Jemma's work station and cuffs him to it.

He waits until she leaves before moving to Jemma's side. May must be frazzled herself she'd cuffed him to a chair with wheels. He's made no further moves to touch Jemma's face since he'd closed her eyes. She was beginning to grow cold and stiff it was unsettling.

He has no concept of time and how long he's been sitting there. He knows he's in shock but it feels much different than he'd thought he hasn't experience true trauma in over a decade.

All he wants is his wife back. He will do anything in his power get her back, even if he has to sacrifice himself.

-/-/-/-

The numbing monotony of his disbelieve is broken by Fitz's heart wrenching, blood curdling screams. After a few minutes they stop. He hears the hammer of a gun click back at the back of his head. "You can kill me Fitz because that would be merciful at this point or you can hear my shot in the dark plan. It's up to you." He turns the chair to face the other man.

-/-/-

They uncuff him long enough to travel to Weaver's office, with Coulson in surgery its clear she's in charge. Which works unquestionably in his favor his plan is risky on all sides, given what he knows and who it will affect poorly should he be wrong? Well, it looks like the gods of bumbling idiots in power are smiling on him today.

"What's this plan you have Ward?" weaver asked while leaning on the desk. "You killed one of my favorites it'd best be good."

He laughs. "I killed one of your fav-"He shakes his head in complete and utter disbelief. "She's my wife and more than that you self-important bitch, she's the love of my life. So, even if the odds are a million to one on my worst goddamn day… which this is I will still take my chances. Now, would you like to hear my plan or not?"

She nods and he takes that as permission to lay out his plan. That rock on the Iliad is Kree. I know because it was originally a Hydra asset. Garrett tested it for healing properties but it was unreliable at best much like the diviners. Legend was, according to the Hydra higher ups like Whitehall, the stone is meant to be an eradication weapon for the inhumans. If you're human it can turn you into a living weapon if it so chooses. Jemma is human. I'm human; I want to take her into the rock. If the stone chooses to eradicate us? So be it I've got nothing to lose and if it revives her makes her different that's better than dead."

"And if it brings back just you? If it deems Jemma not worthy?" Fitz asks.

"You can kill me Fitz." He nods to the other man.

What if it weaponizes her to kill me?" Skye asks.

He shrugs, "Well, then I'd run."

-/-/-/-

The last time Grant will ever hold Jemma in his arms she is stiff, lifeless, and definitely no longer his wife. All that was left was the husk of her being. It squeezes all the air from his lungs which might be a good thing because every step he takes toward the stone as it fluctuates between liquid and solid is…scary. (Huh, he hasn't been scared in a while.)

He steps in; the substance covers his boots and snakes up his legs and then rises like a wave. It's that temperate that burns with neither heat nor cold but leaves a burn anyway.

He was never afraid for himself. He was only ever afraid Jemma would disapprove. Jemma must live.

It's his last thought as they're enveloped in the rock. "Our love was only a weapon in my hands, let her live." He says aloud to himself.

And the rock is solid again.

* * *

AN: I own nothing, don't hate me I have a plan.


	2. Chapter 2

When he steps from the box containing the stone they all train their guns on him. He can feel Jemma literally inside his mind. He feels funny as though he's not fully in control of his being from a distance he hears them all gasp… then he's back to himself.

Everyone still stares.

He can hear Jemma loud and clear now. As if she has proverbially sidled up beside him to whisper secrets in his ear. _"Darling I believe the stone has formed us into a new being we're one quite literally. I took over and reformed for a moment to insure they wouldn't shoot you."_

"Well, this brings our vows to a whole new level." He mutters to himself.

"What the actual fuck…" Skye says.

"Jem says we're one."

"What the bloody hell does that mean?" Fitz puts in.

"I think, it means we absorbed each other. Like those sets of twins where one absorbs the other?"

"You mean a Chimera?" Fitz asked unflappably logical.

Whatever, the difference is Jemma is definitely present."

"Present how?" May asked. "She flashed into view for a moment like a camera out of focus but that's it." She explained while keeping a close watch him.

"I can hear her. She flashed so you wouldn't kill me…" He holds up his hands in supplication.

" _Tell them I theorized I can become corporeal if I concentrate."_

He relays the information feeling undeniably exposed as the AC kicks on and the sudden, startling realization he's naked hits home.

=/-/-

Fitz runs tons of tests and does in fact discover two separate sets of DNA. As well as two sets of consciousness. Their cells regenerate and morph at rapid rates. The only way Grant knows any of this is that Jemma can assimilate the information as it is given and becomes part of their collective knowledge.

He can hear and even understand some of her science talk and the convoluted theory surrounding it. He'd always wanted to see how her mind works but if he knows everything that has ever entered her mind or happened to her. She knows all his darkness.

The thought worries him. He can feel her sorrow for him like a cloak over his shoulders.

There is but one mark on their body. A little line of dark squares and white star bursts, tattoo like in fashion trailing up their left forearm.

Lincoln later tells them it means connected in Kree. As war is to love, life is to death, air to earth, and body to soul.

-/-/-

The first time Jemma takes the reins it's in Leo's lab. He can feel his connection to the body fade and go just this side of numb. Yet he feels more than knows that Jemma is naked when she takes control.

He chooses to ignore Fitz going in for the hug anyway.

"This is bloody weird let me tell you Fitzy! I think that Grant's body is the dominant one because it was living upon entrance into the stone! Can I see the latest Bio Chemical panels?" She bounced on her heels and excitedly snatched away the tablet.

"Jem would you like some clothes girl?" Skye asked clearly suppressing bemused laughter.

"Bollocks Grant's hospital Johnnie fell right off! Yes, I'd love my blue cashmere jumper and some jeans.

"Grant love, next time leave your shirt on for me to wear okay?" Everyone stares at her. "I look bugger all crazy huh?" She rolls her eyes then uses Fitz's lab coat to cover up in the interim.

They try to keep their talking internal to avoid those weirdly fascinated looks. Though it still can sometimes bites them in the ass. Like the time Grant started singing "I touch myself." While in the midst of a dull briefing.

She'd started laughing uncontrollably and very loudly. She may have snorted. Because no one else could hear him she simply answered. "Grant made a joke."

He does that?" Mack deadpanned seemingly unconvinced.

"On occasion." Grant answered for himself. His voice coming from Jemma's mouth always freaked people out. Jemma secretly thought he got off on creeping everyone out. She may have found it endlessly amusing as well.

As they are slowly mastering how to coexist they're sent on missions and into laboratories to work with Fitz.

-/-/-

Jemma is steadily mastering control of Grant's body. She's sitting on the counter eating ice cream and practicing baseline control when Skye walks in.

"Oh my God!" The other woman jumps back comically.

"What?"

"Ward's body with your eyes is freaky Jem."

She bats her lashes. "How could you tell it was me and not Grant?" She smirks.

"Eyes are the windows to the soul right? You're purer than he is." She levers herself up on to the counter too. "Stop smirking you're gonna give me nightmares."

"He had a hard life and followed the wrong man, yes he did horrific things but seeing it from the inside is different. He was pure once. There was a nanny once named Helena. She loved him, taught him how to love, that part of him is mine the part that loves, you'd never understand."

"Where is he now?"

"Sleeping, his dreams are a rather distracting movie." She replies offering Skye the ice cream spoon.

-/-/-

A few months later Fitz finds Jemma in the gun range on base. "Whatcha doin' Jem?"

"Not Jem right now Ward." Her British accent is unusually clipped and tight.

Fitz relents. "Well then fine Ward, the bodies need rest. Why're you awake?"

"I'm trying to teach Jemma's body to shoot better. Cell memory and all that."

"And the reasons for doing that would be?" Fitz leans on the partition.

"We're a weapon Fitz. She's one of the smartest people on the planet her mind, she's got the brains to kill and I've got the stomach for it. As soon Coulson figures out just how deeply that rock changed us? As soon as he figures out we'll eventually kill his precious Skye if only because our blood calls for it? He will separate us. He'll find away."

"Ward…" Fitz tries to reset this dark conversation but that chance has long passed him by.

"You know they say baptism by fire burns away the chaff. I'm the chaff buddy. So, I'm good with dying if it saves her. I'm doing everything I can to keep her safe, even embedding this into her subconscious." He reloads the handgun. "And Fitz when it happens, if there's any way I just want to touch her one last time."

He claps Ward on the shoulder and feels Jemma's delicate bones beneath his palm. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"If it does?"

"Then, I'll figure out a way for you to touch her."

The gun fires and it is like a harbinger of doom.

-/-/-/-

They start losing snatches of time where neither of them is in the driver's seat. There is an incredibly long stretch where they linger in their shared place of consciousness it looks like their place in the Adirondacks.

"What did we do?" Jem asked him.

He looks at her kicked back on a barker lounger. "Nothing good baby, we're likely incapacitated. It'd be easy to do if Fitz-"

"Tweaked my Dendrotoxin formula! That little prat!" She snarled petulantly. He can't help but smile.

"Chill baby, we'll wake up." He shoots for comforting but things start to go fuzzy. He's not sure it hits the mark.

-/-/-

When they do wake they're in vault D. Grant's body is once again hosting. He's all bloody and cut up. His ribs feel bruised. With their rapid healing, there must have been one hell of a fight.

He bangs on the barrier and it sparks to life.

Fitz trooped down the stairs. He looked so dejected. Grant can feel Jemma weeping; her sorrow is like London on a rainy day. "What happened?" he asked plainly.

"You killed Skye, Jemma created a skin patch that leeched her life force bit by bit then you tore her a part after going through May and Mack." He paused. "I believe the stone seized control as you had no higher brain function until the moment you regained consciousness."

A high pitched whine starts to emit from Ward's body. Fitz looks alarmed. "Jemma is losing her shit…"

"Well calm her down; I have to talk Coulson out of killing the two of you daily. So please, Jemma if you can hear me I need you to stop fueling the fire. "Fitz pleads his voice breaking.

Ward closes his eyes and breathes and slowly the sound stops.

When he opens his eyes he says the only thing that matters. "Do you remember that promise you made me? Please keep it.

-/-/-

They're let out of the vault on a Tuesday and are on the carrier holding the Kree stone by Thursday.

When he sees Coulson standing on the starboard side of the ship he toys with the idea of mopping the floor with Coulson's guards and pitching him overboard. The fact that he has left them unguarded and alone keeps him from doing so.

He strolls lazily toward his would be captor. "We aren't impervious to death Coulson, Why taunt me? Everyone knows you want my death, so get it over with. You want us dead."

"I do, yes, you're dangerous and patently unstable. I'd be doing the world a favor." He said using his gracious leader face.

"What's stopping you? It's the other SHIELD faction right? They don't believe in your single minded zealotry, you're just a fallen dictator and it's the only thing keeping us alive." Grant cocked his head in speculation.

"Weaver couldn't bear to throw away the beautiful mind of Jemma Simmons. So we're separating you." Coulson answered.

"I'm curious how you plan to do that when Jemma herself has only a half working theory? Anyway, good luck with that boss." With that final tease he walked away.

-/-

Turns out Grant's burn away the chaff analogy wasn't so much analogy as it is their entire plan. They shove a pair of diviners into his hands and force him into the box again this time at gun point. The only reason he complies is his desire to do everything in his power to keep Jemma alive any way he can for as long as he can.

In his head Jemma is screeching and screaming as he steps into the box. She's railing at them not for herself but for him of course. His control must be loosening as the alien liquefied stone rises because he slips away every few seconds as Jemma seizes control to fight back.

"Breathe baby, just breathe, I've got you. It'll be over soon just relax." He can feel her releasing control to him and she remains clinging to his consciousness as the tide rises she is chanting. "I love you, love you, love you, love…" and they're over taken the world goes black he latches on to the tenor of her voice.

And he lets the fates choose their way. Hopefully they will allow him one last touch.

"And I love you." Is his final shared thought.

-/-/-

He's not expecting to wake up but when he does he feels like he's in a fog, and one thing he knows for sure Jemma is no longer with him. It's like walking around torn in half its painful yet numbing.

"JEMMA!" he shouts and tries to stand and falls from the bed to crawl to the edge of the cage like glass structure. He keeps screaming. "Jem!"

"She's in the cube next to you Ward." Fitz says. As he walks over to inspect him. "Your vitals are shit house crazy. Try to stay calm." He instructs gently ducking into Grant's eye line.

"Fitzy… I have a theory but…it won't…. We were joined…" Jemma says and voice is hoarse and yet still reading.

He picks up her thought thread as it still lingers in his mind. He props himself on the cell wall and looks at her. "We were joined so long… that it…"

"Interrupted our cognitive process we need…"

"Physical contact to reset the pattern right Jem?" He adds as his fingers itch to fix her tangled hair and wipe away the tears streaking down her face in fearful rivers.

"Yes, love." She says turning her head and shooting him a tremulous, watery, smile.

-/-/-

"No putting them together will only cause more harm. They're a risk I can't take. They killed three of our people!" Coulson shouts.

"Sir will all due respect, they will die without some form of physical connection! Their bodies have formed a different rhythm than our bodies. They were melded as one so long that their brain chemistry, heartbeat, pulse, everything changed and cannot be recalibrated without contact. Please don't make me sentence Jemma to death for the bad bed fellows chosen by Ward please!" Fitz begged.

"Fine you can put them together but they're going to the fridge." He plops down behind his desk.

"You cannot lock up one of my best scientific minds because she made the mistake of loving the wrong person! " Weaver put in. "That stone made her a threat not Ward! Yes they killed Skye and I'm sorry you lost your beloved protégé but guess what? Jemma is more valuable to SHIELD alive! The things she is capable of? We can't lose that! They're no longer a damned weapon they're two people with mutated DNA and odd brain chemistry. I will not let you lock her away like bloody fucking Rapunzel!" she rallies.

"Watch me!" He bites out.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think that stone changed you." Fitz said disappointment his leader plain in his tone. "Then again, I guess power does that too." He walked away. He refused to watch them imprison his other half.

-/-

The next time Jemma wakes up the feeling of sand paper scraping the blood from her veins is gone. Instead she is warm, comforted, and happy. Grant's heart beats beneath her ear… wait! She's touching him! She's touching him for the first time in months. She keeps her eyes closed and stretched out her mind. She can almost see his thoughts but they're like rays of the sun behind a cloud. Muted as he slept.

She opens her eyes. She is surrounded by concrete almost as though it's a small bunker. There is glass door with only an outside knob and food slot.

"Where in the bloody Bejeusus are we?" She shakes Grant awake. "Where the hell are we? Please fix it!"

"Morning to you too Jem!" He mumbles scrubbing at his eyes.

"Darling! Seriously."

"I've been here we're in a Fridge cell." He replies once properly awakened.

"I can get us out of the cell easy, all I need is something to punch through the glass with, dead center hit…" He yawns.

"It'll crumble of course but what about…" And she stretches.

"Guard rotations and getting the fuck outta here? I remember floor plans and camera placement we just have to pin down the guards so…"

"We're stuck for a while." She retorts acceptingly.

"Bingo! Wanna have sex? We haven't done it all mind melded yet might be fun." He asks pulling her into his lap.

"We're jailed and you want to shag?" she laughs because only Grant could diminish the severity of their current dilemma in such a ridiculous manner.

His kiss cuts her roll of laughter short. Being telepathically connected in this instance is undeniably fascinating but she can't analyze it because she is too busy being overwhelmed by their combined sensations.

She knows the way her kiss tastes on his tongue and the softness of her face in his palms. The way his calloused thumbs stroke up her cheeks in a desperate reminder that she's real.

Her hands they burn with need to touch him. She works her hands impatiently underneath his shirt and she feels the hard play of muscle beneath her palms.

The term touch starved floats around her brain. They're touch starved and having desperation sex in a jail cell. The absurdity of it strikes her as funny. Grant must sense her odd turn of humor because he's suppressing his smile into the cleavage revealed in her top.

She doesn't know which thoughts belong to her and which ones belong to Grant until there's a very clear command in her mind "Bite me." She giggles at his phrasing until he pulls her more firmly into his lap. The hard ridge of his cock making itself known.

It's then she remembers Grant uses pain to ground himself when he feels his control slipping. She kisses him and sinks her teeth into his bottom lip until she draws blood. She'd feel bad if she wasn't so turned on.

Their clothes are ditched in a hurry; they need skin on skin contact like they need air. The actual sex is quick and rough as their sensations trip over one another making for a heady and disorienting but very satisfying shag. They'd had no problems in the bedroom before Grant's defection to Hydra or for their short tryst after but this it makes for a rather soul rattling experience.

Afterward when her vision is no longer fogged at the edges and her heart rate is normal as she's still lying beneath him she asked the question that had been dogging her since they woke up as a singular being,

"Why did you go into the stone?" She knows the answer but she needs to hear the words. The heavy weight of him rolls away and she's mildly bereft before he pulls her to lie across his chest.

His hand is wound in her hair and she can feel the words vibrate through his chest seconds before they leave his mouth. "I love you Jemma, more than my own life. I always will."

"Always?" She tilts her head to look up at him.

"Always. Kara was a distraction from my pain. You didn't choose me and understandable as it was it hurt." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't know you meant every word you said like I do now." She whispers.

He shrugs. "Maybe that's the only good thing to come of this then. You know who I truly am."

"I do, and I know you want to kill Kara for putting the mask on me."

"But-"he tacks on.

"But she's not worth adding more dark spots on your soul love."

He hums in a noncommittal noise. "Being your head was…I don't even have words for it. I mean I know you're smart but damn Jem…how do you keep all that inside?"

She cuddled to him. "I've never known any different… I just am who I am."

"It's like trying to catch the tail end of a nebula, to keep up with you and yes I know what that is now." Her ensuing laughter soothes his jangled nerves.

=/=

As it turns out they don't have to break themselves out Fitz and Weaver break them out a few weeks later with very little fuss and no fanfare.

They're dropped off in a non-descript bus station. A low profile travel plan and aliases of course being the safest way to go.

Their only stipulation was having to be subject to occasional testing, as they try and harness their telepathic connections to use in operations. Grant would be more apprehensive but he really wants a normal life with Jem. As long as they don't hurt her he'll take it.

Jemma is perfectly happy as long as she is included and gets to do the science herself.

-/-/-

They had settled at their lake house in the Adirondacks. After some trial and error along with time they can be as further and further away from each other which made things easier. If they go much farther than a mile they start to get what Jemma calls Biological Anxiety, it's like an uncomfortable itch at the back of his brain.

He doesn't like it at all.

He's outside chopping wood for their nightly fire. While she's working down in her lab. As he stretches out her mind he can hear her singing along to U2. "And give yourself away, and you give yourself away, and you give, and you give…"

If his axe swing picks up a matching rhythm no one is around to see and he wouldn't care anyway because… "I can't live with or without you…" he whispers along thinking how oddly true it was.

She'd come back to him after she'd just taken the long way round.

-/-

AN: I own nothing. Songs used: With or without you by U2. This turned out differently than I hoped. I hope you enjoyed anyway. Please tell me if you did.-MM


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